The problem with Hearthstone is that it is too consistent. You always have your mana when you need it. As such, that five-drop of yours is coming down on turn five. In Magic, your five-drop may come down on turn five in one game, and then have to wait until turn seven on the next. Mana is too consistent in Hearthstone, so every game feels the same. On top of that, card draws are more consistent because you have 30 cards as opposed to 60 in Magic/Pokémon and 40 in Yugioh. And because you don't have to put lands in your deck (or mana crystals, whatever), you can cram more good spells into your deck, so your odds of getting a "good card" go up. Finally, the mulligan process in Hearthstone of being able to pick-and-choose makes opening hands more consistent, especially since there's no penalty for taking a mulligan (either in full or in part).

It makes the point that the randomness in Hearthstone is just surface randomness built into a few cards. While the deeper deck construction is far more consistent in Hearthstone than in Magic.

Note too that this player thinks consistency at this level is a flaw in the game, not a positive. I've commented before on how the initial hand in card games (and subsequent draws) is a far more acceptable source of randomness to players than other sources.

As I understand it, one of the developers specifically said that their initial iterations of Hearthstone were too predictable for exactly this reason - that's why they wanted to add a number of cards with randomness involved in their effects.

Yes, it's good to see that they realized this. But I wonder if much of the audience perceives a "qualitative" difference in randomness coming from card effects versus randomness coming from deck structure.

I would still prefer if "randomness" comes from decisions and mind tricks you and your opponent play on each other. Does he have a Fog? Does he have a Counterspell? Am I going to counter that? How is he going to block that? How am I going to block that?

Randomness based pure on the luck of the draw feels very cheap and unrewarding to me.

The MTG player is correct in his points, but you saying "a few cards have randomness" is where I strongly disagree.

It's not just a few cards (almost every top cards has some randomness factor, and a card like Unstable Portal is 99% random/luck), and the randomness isn't minor in impact. UP for example can range from completely useless (wisp) to insta-win (turn three key legendary). Dr. Boom is less random, but still has part of his power allocated to dice.

Look at any top deck in HS, and count how many of the cards contain random elements. Now compare that to a MtG deck. It's not even remotely close in terms of how many cards, and how many major power shifts, are allocated to dice rolls vs skillful play.

(I'd also argue that making 'land' automatic in HS not only makes that aspect less random, it also makes it more simplified compared to MtG. In MtG deck construction impacts land draws, and land removal is more a factor, while in HS you have zero choice on that front. But that's going down a different topic.)

Again I strongly disagree. Drawing a land late in MtG is like drawing a one-cost card late in HS. That randomness is inherent to card games, and can be offset with correct deck-building (and as mentioned, that aspect in terms of lane balance and color combinations is a non-factor in HS)

Same for the early-game; if face hunter doesn't get the correct draw, or draws into someone with an early clear draw, 'luck' wins. But again that's just something that happens in card games. I'd also say more turns happen in your average game of MtG than HS, so the early draw luck or one bad/great draw is less of a factor in MtG compared to HS. More player decisions happen in MtG in your average game.

The major difference is MtG doesn't have nearly as many random luck cards, and even many of the mechanics are less luck-based in MtG than HS (counter-spell in MtG vs counter-spell in HS is a perfect example).

Combine a shorter game with less deck-building and a flood of extremely powerful luck cards, and it continues to blow me away that people still claim HS is anywhere close to as skill-based as MtG. What this MtG player is saying is that more HS games play out in a similar fashion game after game (turn 7, drop dr. boom), which is true, but that's a negative truth. MtG is both more dynamic AND more about player actions vs dice rolls compared to HS.